Thankfully the wild weather that was affecting northern England and Scotland didn’t extend as far south as Gloucestershire and after a bit of a late start we were packed up and ready to say goodbye to Briarfields and set off for Oxford. We called in reception to drop off our electronic tag that operated the security barriers and waved goodbye to our neighbour who was leaving in his campervan after an overnight stay. The Sat-Nav gave a distance of about 37 miles and a time of one hour twenty minutes to complete the journey. We pulled off the site just before eleven o’clock and headed out into the late morning traffic enroute for Oxford Camping & Caravan Club site. Continue reading →

One of the great things you can do in the run up to Christmas to get you into the swing of things is stay a couple of nights at a site that’s within striking distance of one of the many Christmas Markets held all over the country (and Europe for that matter) Staying local also allows you to sample some of the mulled wine and cider that’s on offer.

Last year we had booked to visit Cheltenham’s famous Christmas Market, but unfortunately due to the builders not removing scaffolding from around the house in time we had to cancel. However to make up for it we decided to do two markets this year! We have booked into Briarfields an independent site just outside Cheltenham with a good bus service right into the centre of the town. From Briarfields we then head back north to Oxford to the Camping & Caravan Club’s site for a few days so we can ‘do’ Oxford’s Christmas Market too!

If you fancy the idea of visiting one of the UK’s many Christmas Markets we use this handy website that lists all the dates and opening times… http://www.christmasmarkets.com/UK.html and currently they list over 150 markets in the UK and over 250 markets all over Europe.

If you have never caravanned ‘out of season’ don’t worry. Caravan’s are great in winter… when it’s nice and toasty inside with some mulled wine… who cares what the weather is doing!

So it may only be August, but find yourselves a Christmas Market, find a site and get booked in and even better invite some caravan or motor home friends to join you.

Well not long till we set off for Cheltenham Christmas Market ! We looked for a campsite close to Cheltenham and found one just 2.5 miles from the centre. Briarfield Touring Campsite (@BriarfieldsUK on twitter) is open all year and offers 72 hard standing pitches with all the usual facilities and free WiFi. There is a regular (every 10 minutes) bus service into Cheltenham so it means we don’t have the hassle of driving in and parking. So with the free WiFi hopefully we will be blogging and tweeting from Cheltenham in a few days time!

There is still time…

If you want to have a quick getaway and visit one of the many Christmas markets in the UK check out www.christmasmarkets.com to find out where they are and the dates. It not too late to gat a quick couple of days away in your caravan or motorhome and there is nothing like wandering round a Christmas Market drinking some mulled wine to get you in the festive spirit!

Replacing the road lights on your caravan with LED bulbs

I was hoping to have this article published by now as a number of people have emailed and asked me about it…. what are the benefits?… Is it legal?… Any problems?… Would it solve one manufacturers brake light problem? I did intend to get it on-line so that the ‘all season’ caravanners (like ourselves) could take advantage for the dark mornings and evenings.

Well unfortunately the company that was going to supply me with a selection of bulbs to use on long-term test and so I could photograph the ‘before and after’ of replacing the bulbs has pulled out. I was trying to do a deal with them so that you could order a full set of LED replacement bulbs for your caravan at a big discounted price from a UK supplier rather than chance you luck on one of the well-known auction sites and have the bulbs of varying standards coming from the far east.